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Rocket take off for the summer

Jill Dupleix

August 4 2005, 1:00am, The Times

IN THE past ten years, the art of salad-making has emerged from the iceberg age, only to turn into an advanced branch of rocket science.

Rocket, also known as arugula, ruchetta, rughetta or rucola in Italian and roquette in French, has become one of the defining ingredients of the modern summer table. Rocket varies madly in flavour, from the mild, lush, large-leafed cultivated variety to the tooth-edged wild, peppery, horseradishy perennial. I could live on it — rocket and parmesan salads, scattered over pizza, wilted into baked beans, served with prosciutto and mozzarella, or churned into pesto.

The last time I was in Italy I ordered a side salad of tiny wild rocket leaves tossed with fine tangles of deeply crimson radicchio, a magical combination…